towards the middle, where, in some places,
the natives cannot fathom the depth. The
shores and the bottom, as far into the lake
as we could see, were formed of small black
fragments of rock, except that in a few places,
at a little distance from the edge, there are
some entire and romantic masses, on which
I found several mosses that I had not before
met with in Iceland: some of them, indeed,
were quite new to me. A beautiful Lecidea,
with a white and powdery crust, and red
shields with an elevated marog iny, ogrew in
small patches upon so hard a substance, that
I was not able to procure the smallest piece.
In the lake was abundance of Rivularia
cylindrica. At four o’clock we set out,
accompanied by the son of the priest of
Thingevalle and by the priest Egclosen, for
Thingevalle, which was only at the opposite
side of the head of the lake, and not more
than five or six miles distant; yet, owing to
the badness of the road, and to our stopping
to look about us, it was eight o’clock before
we reached it. Nearly our whole ride lav
along the. shores of the lake, which are composed
entirely of small broken pieces of lava,
in many places nearly as fine as sand, and
as fatiOg uingC? to the horses as sand itself
would have been. Among this, wherever the
numerous streamlets, which ran into the lake,
had deposited a small quantity of soil, the
bright yellow green of Bartramia fontana.,
and the pink-colored flowers of Sedurn vil-
losum, were finely contrasted with the blackness
of the ground. In some places, at a
short distance from the shore, such of the
rock as had been melted was in an entire
state, and marked on the surface all over
with numerous elevated semicular lines, in
a manner not unlike the shell of an oyster *,
if such a comparison may be allowed. We
passed a tolerably wide stream, just below
a cascade of considerable size, which reminded
me of the upper fall of the Clyde;
but there were no trees, and scarcely a blade
of grass, to clothe the surrounding rocks.
Having reached the north-eastern extremity
of the lake, our guide told us we were
* As a figure will give a better idea of this appearance
than words can possibly do, I will beg to refer, for
an excellent representation of this kind of unbroken
lava, to plate 35 of Bory de St. Vincent; Voyage dans
les quatre principales Isles des mers d'Afrique.